Rapscallion ll 18+

Chapter-27

Ellie eased the bedroom door shut behind her with the quiet, she had come back after giving medicines to her father in law. Exhaustion dragged at her bones, but the sight waiting for her at the doorway stopped her completely. Jungkook was sprawled across the bed exactly as he must have collapsed onto it. Still in his office clothes. The tie loosened halfway.

Sleeves creased. Shoes untouched. One leg hung off the edge of the mattress as the polished black shoe rested against the floor as if he hadn't even gathered enough strength to pull himself fully onto the bed. Minwoo slept on his chest, tiny and warm against him, his small cheek pressed over Jungkook's heart and despite everything, despite the exhaustion carved into his body, Jungkook's hand continued moving in slow, automatic motions over his son's back.

Like even in sleep, he refused to let go of him. For a moment, she simply stood there watching them in the dim amber light of the bedside lamp. The room was quiet except for Minwoo's soft breaths and the faint rustle of fabric every time Jungkook's hand moved. "When did he come back.?" She walked closer carefully before standing beside the bed, she looked down at him properly.

His eyes were closed, but there was no peace on his face. Only exhaustion. Not the ordinary kind born from overwork or sleepless nights. This exhaustion looked heavier. "Jungkook," she called softly. He responded with a low hum, barely conscious and Ellie glanced at Minwoo again before she looked back at Jungkook. "If you're tired, give Minwoo to me. I'll put him in his room."

For a second, nothing happened. Then Jungkook slowly opened his eyes and Ellie felt something inside her ache at the sight of them. They were red rimmed and distant, staring past her toward the ceiling instead of at her, as if looking directly at her would force something unbearable to surface. There was a strange stillness in him tonight, too quiet, too defeated.

And somehow... she already knew. Slowly, Ellie lowered herself onto the floor beside the bed until she was at eye level with him. The cold wood pressed against her knees, but she barely felt it.

Her brows pulled together faintly as she said "Did you meet her?" Jungkook blinked once. Yet it felt like watching someone crack open silently. Only then did he turn his head toward her. And when their eyes finally met, the pain inside his was so raw that it stole the air from her lungs. Because it was the same pain reflected in her own.

Not anger. Not jealousy. Just grief. The kind that comes when two people love each other deeply, yet still find themselves standing helplessly in front of wounds they cannot heal for one another. Jungkook blinked at her slowly, like he was trying to pull himself back from somewhere far away. And Ellie smiled. Not because she was okay.

Not because she wanted to comfort him. It was the kind of smile born from heartbreak, the kind people wear when they are trying not to fall apart in front of someone they love. "I'm sorry," she whispered and Jungkook frowned. His eyes shifted toward Minwoo sleeping peacefully against his chest as his tiny fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, completely unaware of the storm swallowing his parents whole. "Why are you apologizing," Jungkook asked quietly trailing his eyes back at her, "when none of this is your fault?"

Jungkook let out a humorless breath through his nose and looked back up at the ceiling again, like it was easier than looking at her. "Did I make you believe this was your responsibility? That somehow you had to carry this too? It should've been me. I should've been more careful." Ellie watched the way Jungkook's hand continued patting their son's back, though slower now, weaker somehow. Then she noticed it, the other hand resting beside him had curled tightly into the bedsheet.

"You don't have to apologize, It's not your fault." But the moment the words left him, something dark flickered across his face. Because the person truly responsible for all of this......was still living peacefully. Still winning. Still untouched by the destruction left behind. And somehow, that was the cruelest part. Jungkook had everything he once thought he wanted. Yet why did it still feel like they had lost something they could never get back?